International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property
The 13th-century, Gothic-style Church of Eremitani in the northern Italian city of Padua was decorated with mosaics by the greatest Renaissance artists in the region, most notably Andrea Mantegna. The frescoes, painted between 1448-1457 and depicting scenes from the lives of Saints James and Christopher, were Mantegna's first major commission.
The Portico of Octavia was built by Augustus in the 1st century BC. Today, the portico’s remains have been annexed to the church of Sant’Angelo in Pescheria. The portico’s colonnaded walks can be found next to the Theatre of Marcellus - an ancient Roman open-air theatre. The Portico of Octavia was damaged by an earthquake in the 5th century, when two of the destroyed columns were replaced with an archway, which still stands and is visible in the...
If you understand Italian, you may be perplexed by the name of the Church of Sant'Angelo in Pescheria. In pescheria? A fish market? The story of how this church got its name is nearly as strange as you might imagine. It is located near the remains of the Portico of Octavia, which Emperor Augustus dedicated to his sister in ancient times, though it became a fish market (pescheria) during the Middle Ages and remained so until the 19th century. The...
Does your institution hold heritage samples? If so, you should tune in to the international workshop, “Connecting Collections: Unlocking Value in Heritage Samples Archives,” which will take place in-person 13 - 15 June 2022, in Évora, Portugal. The workshop is organized by ICCROM as part of its Heritage Samples Archives Initiative (HSAI), together with the HERCULES Laboratory - University of...
In a room on the first floor of the Palazzo Farnese, a High Renaissance palace now housing the French embassy in Rome, the ceiling is decorated with a fresco cycle by the painter Annibale Carracci (1560–1609). Known as the Camerino Farnese, it features a scene from Greek mythology in which Hercules carries the weight of Atlas’ globe.
A unique setting rich with flora and fauna, the Garden of Ninfa is an English-style landscape park in the Latina province, recognized as an Italian natural monument. The park was the site of a medieval village of the same name.
In the Italian town of Genazzano, there is a 16th-century nymphaeum, or shrine to the nymphs, attributed to Donato Bramante, the architect and painter known for designing the earliest example of High Renaissance style architecture in Rome. Our archives hold a series of photos and drawings from a study project carried out at the nymphaeum in 1977.
This Etruscan sarcophagus with a couple reclining on the lid dates from between 550-525 BCE and was excavated in Caere (present-day Cerveteri), Italy. At least, that is what was once claimed, before it was revealed to be a fake!
This month, we are showcasing one of the samples taken by Cesare Brandi, the founder and first director of Istituto Centrale per il Restauro (ICR) in Rome, during his visit to the tomb in 1958. Analysis of this and other samples at the time helped experts assess the condition of the tomb and determine whether restoration was possible and how best to carry it out.
From Nefertari’s Tomb (Valley of the Queens, Thebes, Egypt), this image is part of a series of photographic prints taken by Giorgio Torraca during an ICCROM mission in 1978. The mission was to assess the deterioration processes affecting the paintings of the tomb, and draft a conservation and stabilization plan, together with a work programme for the Egyptian Organization of Antiquities (now the Supreme Council of Antiquities).